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One more setback, which could come Saturday afternoon at Alumni Stadium against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and they will have the franchise's longest losing streak since 1999, the first year Dave Ritchie and Brendan Taman started cleaning up the Jeff Reinebold cesspool.

Don't forget the Bombers had Jim Daley and Mike Kelly leading them in the interim, so a sixth straight loss would be one of the deepest valleys this franchise has experienced in 14 years. And this is a season that has already been full of lows.

After the Ticats, the Bombers have their annual home-and-home with the league-leading Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Gulp.

There is hope, however, even though the Ticats torpedoed the Blue and Gold 37-18 last week in Winnipeg. The Bombers, you see, have a new offensive co-ordinator in former Tabbies head coach Marcel Bellefeuille, and they say they're going to use more of a CFL offence this week instead of the American-themed one fired OC Gary Crowton had implemented.

Good idea.

Bombers quarterback Max Hall, who will make his second career start under his second offensive co-ordinator, said about 50% of the offence has been changed since Bellefeuille took over on Sunday.

"He kept some stuff, but added some in," said Hall, who last week completed 18 of 30 attempts for 241 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions in his CFL debut. "What he did do is he kind of narrowed it down a little bit so we don't have quite as much. He did a good job of keeping the concepts the same and naming them the same, so I don't think it's too much for our guys to handle."

Winnipeg's defence will also have to bounce back after a less than impressive display last week. It allowed the Ticats, who did have a solid game plan, to post their third consecutive game with at least 400 yards of offence. The Ticats are well aware the Bombers are going to come in guns blazing -- or should, anyway.

"Teams do a good job playing with a chip on their shoulder, so it's our job to wake up early, get a cold shower and get revved up," defensive tackle Brian Bulcke said.

Thanks to Montreal's wild win over B.C. on Thursday night, the Bombers (1-6) are now four points back of the Tiger-Cats (3-4) and Alouettes (3-5) in the East Division. If they didn't need to win before, they do now.

"You don't want to fall too far behind anybody," head coach Tim Burke said, "so definitely we're at a point where we need to win some games."

Speaking of Burke, now that CEO Garth Buchko, general manager Joe Mack and Crowton have all been fired, the restless Bomber fan base has put Burke squarely in their cross hairs as the next man to get the boot out the door. They can forget about that. Acting CEO Wade Miller put the blame on Mack when he fired him, so how fair would it be to get rid of the head coach when you just publicly admitted the GM failed at his job to provide enough talent to him?

Take backup receiver Kito Poblah, for example. Is he playing well enough right now to be on the roster? No. Is he the reason why the Bombers are 1-6? No. Should he have caught that touchdown pass last week against the Ticats? You betcha.

The reason he will play on Saturday, however, is because the Bombers have no one to replace him. Rookie Brett Carter has better hands than Poblah, but he's not refined enough at the pro game to get on the field.

"We only have so many Canadian receivers," Burke said. "We usually dress four, and with Cory down he needs to be in that lineup."

In other words, Bomber fans are going to have to be patient while the talent base gets built up again. It's going to take a while, and time waits for no one.

One more loss would be Bombers' longest losing streak since '99

One more setback, which could come Saturday afternoon at Alumni Stadium against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and they will have the franchise's longest losing streak since 1999, the first year Dave Ritchie and Brendan Taman started cleaning up the Jeff Reinebold cesspool.

Don't forget the Bombers had Jim Daley and Mike Kelly leading them in the interim, so a sixth straight loss would be one of the deepest valleys this franchise has experienced in 14 years. And this is a season that has already been full of lows.

After the Ticats, the Bombers have their annual home-and-home with the league-leading Saskatchewan Roughriders.